Tjokorda Nirarta "Koni" Samadhi

Bio

Dr. Nirarta “Koni” Samadhi is the country director of WRI Indonesia. Formerly known as Deputy Minister of Indonesia’s Unit for Development Monitoring and Oversight (UKP4), he and WRI have worked together over many years, and he joins WRI Indonesia at a time when its work in the forest, land use, and governance sectors is expanding.

While at UKP4, Dr. Koni played a leading role in designing policies such as Indonesia’s groundbreaking forest moratorium, establishing Indonesia’s new REDD+ agency (BP REDD+), and driving the OneMap Initiative to harmonize Indonesia’s land use planning. Dr. Koni previously served as chair of the Working Group on Moratorium Monitoring, was part of the Indonesia REDD+ Task Force, and worked with the UNDP as a strategic planning advisor and head of Papua Accelerated Development (PADU) Advance Team.

During his tenure at UKP4, Dr. Koni observed that WRI was consistent in contributing significant work to improve environmental management, and he would like to expand and tailor the organization’s contribution for the people of Indonesia. Through WRI Indonesia, he plans to work with all stakeholders and promote innovations to help ensure that the new administration, as well as sub-national governments, will deliver sustainable development programs.

Blog Posts

Indonesia’s Geospatial Information Agency will announce results this week of a competition for mapping the nation’s peat. The winning team will receive $1 million. The world will receive the information it needs to start protecting these carbon-rich wetlands.

To help clarify heated debate over what drives deforestation in Indonesia, new analysis of Global Forest Watch data shows that most forest loss -- 55 percent -- occurs in legal concession areas, where some tree removal is allowed, but 45 percent happens outside these areas.

Indonesia's fires are truly out of control, with huge repercussions for the economy, climate and public health. It's a topic that should be high on the agenda when President Obama and Indonesia President Joko Widodo meet this week.

While dealing with sooty clouds from massive forest fires in recent weeks, Indonesia submitted its post-2020 climate action plan, committing to an unconditional target of a 29 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, compared to a business-as-usual scenario.

In 2009, Indonesia made a bold move by voluntarily pledging to achieve a 26 percent reduction in emissions against the business-as-usual scenario in 2020, or 41 percent with international support. Being a developing country with so much promise for economic growth and development, the international community applauded Indonesia for this daring target, which became a game-changer in the stagnant climate negotiations at the time. The National Action Plan on Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emission (RAN-GRK) was soon issued to guide its implementation.

Fire alerts in Indonesia have spiked dramatically in recent days, surging even higher than the crisis-level outbreaks of June 2013, March 2014 and November 2014. Satellite data from Global Forest Watch reveals where they're burning.

Half of the fire alerts in Indonesia's Riau Province are occurring in protected areas like the Tesso Nilo National Park. Plus, 38 percent of the alerts are on peatlands, some of the country's most carbon-rich ecosystems.